The new version has been designed from the ground-up for the touch-centric platform and includes several unique and exclusive features for Windows 8 users, including the usual suspects like Live Tiles and lock screen notifications, but also including:

Viber for Windows 8 includes several exclusive features.

Pin Viber conversations to the Start screen

Snap Viber to the side of the screen with Snap View

Search for Viber contacts using the Search charm

“Windows 8 Toast Notifications” guarantee that you never miss a message or call

And these are just the exclusive features, mind you. The features found in other versions of Viber are still present in the new application.

“This is the natural next step for Viber following our support for Windows Phone 8, bringing a fully compatible and custom designed version of Viber to Microsoft’s touch-friendly OS,” said Talmon Marco, CEO of Viber. “Windows 8 is an exciting platform to develop for, and brings a whole new set of UI elements and unique functionality to Viber for the first time. We are excited to support Viber users on Windows 8 and this is part of our commitment to wide, cross platform availability.”

“This is the natural next step for Viber following our support for Windows Phone 8”

The Windows Phone 8 version was initially released with voice in April, though a messaging-only version had been available for some time before that. The new Windows 8 version represents a new dedication to Microsoft’s new touch-centric platform.

Keep in mind it’s a decent sized app so depending on your internet connection, it may take some time to download.

Try restarting your computer or app store if your installation fails. I didn’t have any problems with the install.

Let me know if it works! 🙂

Edward Not From Twilight

Restarting the computer worked. Thanks Josh! 🙂

Andy Quek

Hi Josh,
Just wondering if you’ve run into toast notification issues with Viber on your WP8 device since installing the Viber for Windows 8 app?
Mine stopped prompting/getting toast notifications and will only show number of new messages received on the live tiles the next time I looked at my phone.
Reinstalling Viber on my WP8 doesn’t help.

Okay, strangely enough, I tried it again this morning and it allowed me to log in. I tried both of my test Viber accounts along with my main Viber account and everything seems to work okay on Windows 8.

On Windows Phone, I am indeed unable to receive toast notifications now. I’m going to continually test this and see if I can find a workaround. In the meantime, it’s important to keep pushing Viber for an update to fix this issue.

Andy Quek

Thanks for taking the trouble to test and confirm the issue.

I’ve manage to get so response from the Viber Team on this issue and that they are looking into this, but their CEO simply ignores my Tweets to him.

I’ve attempted to find a workaround and have been so far unsuccessful.

LINE and a few other apps work perfectly on both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 with the same account logged in, so I can at least confirm that the issues likely lie within the Viber app rather than the Windows Phone OS itself.

Andy Quek

It’s a shame that with the introduction of Viber for Windows Desktop client and Windows 8 app, they’ve introduce issues affecting Windows Phone.

Last was with the international country code and now toast notifications which by the way was already not stable on WP8 itself.

Andy Quek

Hi Josh,

We you in any way manage to get in contact with anyone from Viber to comment on the issue between the Viber for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 app and if a fix is on it’s way?

It has been 17 days since I open a support ticket and nobody bothers to get back to me, even when I’ve sent them email asking about it.

Things have been pretty hectic with my life lately so I haven’t yet had the chance to voice my concerns with Viber. I will, however, do so now to see if we can get this remedied. Things will settle down really soon and I’ll be able to return my full attention to TruTower and be more active in pursuing things like this.

It’s not just Viber I’m going to be pushing. LINE, KakaoTalk, and others too. I’ve been trying to pressure Tango into supporting WP8 as well.

Andy Quek

Good to know, looking forward to hear from you soon. Wondering if Viber for WP8 is still on schedule to be released this month or will it be delayed again due to current issue???

Yes, put some pressure on them, especially Tango. When WP8 was first released, their support team mentioned that they are working on releasing a working Tango for WP8 in the foreseeable future. But after long silence, they suddenly said that they are not going to support the platform.

Andy Quek

One representative just got back to me via email and their reply was that they are unable to reproduce the issue.

They will however continue to investigate and see if more people feedback/complain about the same.

Andy Quek

Hi Josh,

Were you able to get anything out from Viber in regards to the notification issue?

Their response was always that the same saying that they were unable to reproduce the issue on their end and that they can’t fix something which they can’t reproduce. Thus far they’ve only heard of me and another person reporting this (which is obviously not the case) issue and that it is most likely a isolated case which is device specified.

All they can advise is for me to wait for the next update release to see if it fixes this issue…

That being said, as with any app, it’s always a good idea to continue demanding that the developers make a version available for Windows Phone 8. The more it’s asked for, the more likely it will happen!